Changes in citation distribution between 1962 and 1975 in five leading biochemical journals

Abstract

The increase in the number of citations per article in the journals investigated is inversely proportional to the average citation number in 1962. The fraction of citations not older than five years has decreased, whereas the half-life increased. There are significant discrepancies in the obsolescence indices of the journals analyzed even if the time lags in the process of publication are reduced to zero by selecting the sample articles according to their submission date. Taking into account the growth of publication, the half-life of the total biochemical literature is 6,4 years.